Digital signal cross-connect equipment plays a vital role in the installation, monitoring, testing, restoring and repairing of digital telecommunication networks. Digital signal cross-connect panels are frequently used in digital networks to provide a central cross-connect location that is convenient for testing, monitoring, restoring and repairing infrastructure equipment associated with the communication of digital signals. Digital signal cross-connect panels are frequently used in a variety of locations, such as telephone central offices, remote sites and customer premises. For example, a cross-connect panel may be utilized in the infrastructure to allow circuit arrangement and rearrangement by plugging and unplugging cabling from jacks disposed on the “front” of the cross-connect panel.
However, because of the vast number of devices utilized to communicate, an equally and even greater number of connections may be utilized in the telecommunication infrastructure to provide communication between the devices, such as through the use copper, fiber, and optical cabling. Therefore, routing and organization of this cabling when configuring and rearranging the infrastructure may be difficult. In particular, it may be difficult to identify where a particular cable is routed.
In the past, one technique used to identify routed cabled involved a technician manually tracing cabling to determine equipment interconnections. This technique was difficult, frustrating, and time consuming for the technician.
Another previous technique required the technician to apply a test voltage at one location, e.g., at one cross-connect panel. Then, at the site of another cross-connect panel (which may be located at a significant distance from the destination), the technician located a corresponding jack through use of a plug that was sequentially inserted into each of the jacks until a jack having the test voltage was located. This was also both time consuming and frustrating to the technician, especially as the number of cables and distance between locations increased.